Erlotinib after failure of gefitinib treatment of more than 6 months in advanced non-small cell lung cancer

摘要

Saito et al. have documented in this issue of Onkologie that erlotinib is one of the therapeutic options for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with long-term stable disease (SD) of more than 6 months who had previously been on gefitinib. In their study, 21 patients with NSCLC were retrospectively evaluated, 9% achieved a partial response (PR) and 36% disease control (DC). The median survival time (MST) of patients with DC was 369 days, which was longer than in previous reports. Their preliminary data suggest that erlotinib can produce clinical benefit in patients with long-term SD of more than 6 months on gefitinib treatment.